First, here are today’s top stories (and other newsy things I think you should read):
- The California Employees Retirement System has committed $530 million to property funds in China. (Bubble? What bubble?)
- The San Francisco Chronicle has included a section on SWFs in their discussion of “shadow markets” in finance.
- Will we soon have two more Canadian Giants? Maybe.
- Institutional Investor Magazine does a nice piece on Ontario Teachers’ (with a few shout-outs to my friends at the Alberta Investment Management Corp).
- The $74 billion investment division of the Oregon State Treasury has a new investment chief.
- There’s been another big oil discovery in Ghana, which means more money could be flowing into the country’s petroleum funds.
Oh FFS! ... “Nigeria’s state governors vowed on Thursday to go to court to stop the government putting oil revenues into a sovereign wealth fund... The governors, who enjoy luxurious lifestyles and wield huge patronage, had been opposed to the fund because they feared it would reduce their share of the oil money.” You cannot be serious.
- Apparently, private equity lobbyists make nice maps! (And are fairly adept at bragging about outliers.)
Second, the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds has released all of the presentations and case studies from the fourth Forum meeting in Mexico September 5-7, 2012.
- The funniest chief executive in the investment business, Adrian Orr, gave what looks like a rather serious presentation on the changing regulatory environment and the challenges it presents for long-term investors. Well worth reading.
- Chong-Suk Choi, President & CEO of the Korea Investment Corporation, gave a presentation about how the KIC was positioning its portfolio for the ‘low return environment.’ The key focus appears to be private markets, as the Korean SWF will be ramping up its allocation to private assets to 25% by 2015 or so.
- Pål Haugerud of Norway’s Government Pension Fund–Global offered a presentation on cross border capital flows and their implications for investment horizons.
- And then the New Zealand Super Fund also offered an in depth description of its innovative reference portfolio. It’s well worth a read if you aren’t yet familiar with it.
Have a nice weekend!
